Defense: Death in Vain
by muahahahaboo
Summary: When Korea blew up the White House, we attacked them. They struck back. Stuck at the tip of the beach, we have to defend the nuke until it goes off. This is my story... my last stand... Rated T for Safety


Last Stand

Version history:

1.0: Story Released 7/6/08

1.0.1: Typos edited with Spell Check. 7/6/08

1.2.2: Further improved parts of the story and Spell Checked. 7/6/08

1.2.5: Improved the ending slightly. 7/11/08

1.2.6: Corrected Typos Spell Check did not find. Also improved a few sentences in the end. 7/13/08

1.6.0: Greatly improved the story. We Were Soldiers scene taken out and replaced.

Author's note: My first story that wasn't based on something and didn't include author's lines from other books. :D LOL. So anyway… yeah… read and enjoy. Suggestions welcome. Typos? Tell me! Note: I know that Generals don't normally fight on battlefields! I also know that Korea is an ally, but this is FICTION! And YES, I know that it is like super advanced soldiers fighting non-tactical, Korean War age enemies.

Defense: Death in Vain

Three days… Three days I've been waiting next to the beach… Three days that I haven't slept… Two weeks ago, a nuclear device went off in Washington, D.C., killing the president. The Military took control. I forgot how many days ago, they found out it was Korea. Then about a week ago, we swarmed South Korea and took it in two days. Surprisingly, resistance was low, too low. We had less than 500 casualties. We were preparing to attack North Korea, when Chinese forces reinforced them and pushed us back.

There, they pushed forward and our casualties jolted up. 500 went to 600 in less than an hour, and in a few days it mounted to thousands. Commanders fell back towards the south and tried to resist. All of them died. There was one, however, who managed to dig in with a hundred of his troops, and take 600 of the damn bastards with him. Now, under the control of General Rafe A. Nelson, we were given orders to dig in. We actually managed to dig a few machine gun nests.

One more thing, we had a nuke with us. I don't know how we got it and I don't care.

One thing I do know though, was that they had been fortifying their positions around our corner of the beach. They were going to finish us off right here, right now. The fighting would get messy and even with our advanced armor we would lose. That was why the bomb was ticking right now. One whole day we guarded this thing, and in five hours, it would go off, hopefully taking out the bastard's positions on the beach.

One hour ticked off, and the men were starting to get jumpy. The beach had a slope of good height, on which some of our men would lean against and fire. In front of the slope, the beach suddenly dropped down to a flat surface and that was where we had foxholes and our machine gun nests. The machine gun nests were sealed shut, we didn't expect to survive, and with only a small hole, which the gunner shot from, it would be damn hard to throw grenades in.

Another hour ticked off, and a few rounds went off. Someone was nervous. I was one of the ones that were leaning on the slope, with my HK416, a personal favorite of pretty much everyone here. Some stuck to their SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) for its high accuracy and fire rate.

Then we heard the whine of mortar fire and the explosions of artillery at the same time. Some guys were blown out of their foxholes and others hunkered down.

I couldn't find anywhere to hide so I put my head down resting on my arm a few inches from the ground. I knew I was going to die here, so I pulled out a half-chewed cigar and put in my mouth. Somewhere after that, I knocked out. Two hours later, the heavy fire stopped and I looked up. I had spent two hours keeping my head down asleep and someone dragged me close to the water where the artillery didn't hit. I ran back to the slope to find dead people everywhere, except they didn't look like people. They looked like torn up dolls with the cotton replaced by blood and flesh. Only a few remained. Most of those on the slope survived. Our resistance had dwindled from over three hundred men to about 125 men.

And then we heard it, the boots of an army rushing. The crunch of sand and rocks under boots were surprisingly loud. We heard battle cries too. As soon as we saw the first enemy, we opened up. Everybody leading the charge just fell down into the sand, not even throwing their arms out to break the fall. The guys down at the beach showed extraordinary teamwork and improvision. They had gathered their dead comrades' weapons and had used them to cover each other while reloading. The ones on the slope just provided fire support. They kept charging and I told my marksman next to me to hand me his binoculars. I took it, and looked through it. My jaw fell. The army didn't end where my vision ended. Just then, I heard the roar of jets overhead and a low flying AC-130 gunship.

"This is Falcon 1, we got some pizza delivery for these guys. It's supreme flavored."

Some of the guys jumped up and yelled, "Go zoomies!" Yes, there were Ex-Marines in this team. The jets released what looked like tubes, and they hit the ground with a deadly impact. Fire engulfed enemies and the jets returned for another pass. More missiles plummeted towards the battlefield. One by one, they scored hundreds of casualties.

"This is Wildfire, preparing to unload 105 millimeter shells on the enemy."

After a few seconds, I decided to object. "Negative, use 20 millimeter shells. Danger close."

A few moments later, the AC-130 radioed the commander. "Sir, ground team is requesting 20 millimeter shells danger close." After a little while, they said, "Roger, bringing the rain." I waited a few seconds, and then suddenly tiny explosions that spread as wide as two people hit right in front of the foxholes, nearly missing our men. It scored a dozen kills. Of course, the Raptors left and soon after, the AC-130 had run out of ammunition for the 20 millimeter so they switched to 40 millimeter rounds, separating the thin front line of enemies from the rest of them. After that, they used 105 millimeter rounds, simply picking targets close to the front and blowing them all to hell. They just kept charging, like mindless machines.

The satellites watching this battle from above were relaying it to the commander on a color screen. They had gotten air support, yet the enemy kept coming, undiscouraged. The enemy had broken through the front lines, enough to melee the ground forces. The fire died down for a few seconds as they fought it out hand-to-hand. Weapon butts smashed down on unprotected faces, and though many Koreans and Chinese had fallen, there were too many. Soon, American troops started sprawling on the ground either dead or unconscious. I looked at my watch, fifteen minutes until the nuclear warhead detonated… Too much time. I picked my targets and shot each one carefully, making sure not to shoot any friendlies. More enemies dropped dead. The casualty counter on the upper left of my screen, which kept track of casualties from a set time or the whole war, went up 30 men. The machine gun nests, in all the confusion, started killing everything in front of them.

"Fall behind the machine guns!" the General yelled. He was leading the defense. He was a healthy man, about the age of 30. Jesus Christ, I thought to myself. They keep getting younger all the time. A star popped up in my goggle screen, telling me who was the General. He had a M249, a Squad Automatic Weapon. I checked my watch again: 13 minutes. This was going to be slow.

Suddenly I felt a tug and I looked back. "You're hit!" the medic yelled.

"I'm not! I don't feel anything!" I replied.

Then, he put his arm under my vest next to my shoulder. There was a stab of pain and I winced.

"Any trouble breathing?"

"No!"

"Any tightness in your chest?"

"I'm fine!"

"Check up on it!" Then he ran off, frantically trying to find someone who needed medical assistance. He was shot in the neck.

I kept firing and soon, I was out of ammo. I dragged one of the wounded guys to my position and he gave me his clips. I loaded them and fired.

A new objective popped up in my screen, newly relayed from Command. 'Defend the Nuclear Device.'

I grunted and mumbled, "We're ten steps ahead of those damn commanders."

There were 8 minutes left. The machine guns were firing frantically, but most of them had already run out of ammo. Of course, they were trapped. They fired with everything they could, as they were given HK416s.

The ones in the foxholes were being overrun and our lines were breaking. Suddenly I heard a voice on the radio. It was the General's.

"Broken Arrow!"

"Confirm Broken Arrow."

"Broken Arrow Confirmed!"

"Broken Arrow Confirmed."

U.S. Aircraft Carriers all over Korea then launched their F-22's. A few minutes later, they were all over the air, dropping bombs near the beach, burning and literally melting enemies. There was a big boost to morale, and then it was the Americans that were attacking the enemy, a bad mistake. Planes were stacked in the air, about 27 F-22 Raptors.

"Fall back!!" the General yelled, but it was too late. The F-22's had released their bombs, and the brave soldiers who ran up to the enemies were burned out. I watched in horror as our guys were burned and killed. They stumbled back and fell, burning in their own armor.

I was stunned, frozen. I simply kept staring and tears welled up in my eyes. These were guys I had known for months. I felt a knock on my helmet.

"Hey! Hey! Keep on firin'! If everyone stopped firing, we'd be dead!" I nodded and looked through the iron sight of my HK416 and kept squeezing rounds off. Pretty soon though, they had overwhelmed the entire flatbed. We were the last line of defense.

We fired on automatic now, not bothering to aim. All of our shots did not miss. Then it occurred to me that they hadn't fired much rounds, and it must have occurred to them that the nuke would be hard to get to with our environmental advantage. So some of them dropped and tried to aim, and then we shot them. Soon rounds from both sides went flying. I swear that the enemies' aim was horrible, and for a moment we actually laughed at them for their scattered shots. Our amusement was abruptly cut short as the person next to me had his face blown open. Half his face was missing and brains were all over the place. He didn't look human anymore and I gagged. I looked away and kept shooting. Occasionally when I had to reload, I reloaded with one hand and fired my handgun with the other and vice versa.

After a while, our force dwindled, and the enemy came charging once again. They swarmed me and I felt a hard smack on my arm. I squeezed the trigger, but the only thing I heard from my weapon was the sound _clack. _Only then did I realize that I had ran out of ammunition. I swore loudly and went to slamming the butt of my weapon into others. They smothered us. I made my way to the nuke, fighting for many others. I was surprised that I did not have any regard for myself. I looked at my watch: 2 minutes. We weren't going to last that long. I found teams already trying to disable it and I shot them with my handgun. For what seemed like hours, I did hand to hand combat, using weapons, knives, even kicking them. I looked at my watch and it said 30 seconds.

Whew, I thought. But a minute ticked off and it didn't explode. I didn't understand. I looked back to the nuke. They had disarmed it! Tears again welled up. Every American soul that had died, and those who would die had been in vain. I fought with renewed strength fueled by my anger, but soon, I got the feeling of hopelessness, and I was beat down to the ground.

I struggled to stand myself up, but people started kicking me. Just then, I heard the drum of hundreds of guns firing on my position. Koreans and Americans soldiers fell together from the fire. I felt a bullet go into my arm, but that was okay. My life had not been in vain after all. Everybody dropped dead from the gunfire, even friendlies. The friendly gunfire off the beach had killed everyone, because the General gave the order to fire. We couldn't have held them off. The General had died and I knew I was dying because a bullet had entered my chest. Soon, on the casualty counter, the numbers rose slowly. I felt my vision blur, and it occurred to me that even when I was shot, it didn't hurt. So I let myself go and closed my eyes.

A few seconds later I opened my eyes again, and the area was empty. There was no one alive except for the boats that were coming. Bodies were piled on my and I slowly pushed them away. I looked up, and American soldiers were already coming up on the beach. I laughed once and drew my final breath. Then my vision blurred. _No goddamn it, don't die! You have your whole life ahead of you! But _my eyes rolled up, I shut them, and collapsed. My mind cleared, and I knew right then and there that I would die and be added to the K.I.A. counter. With the last moments of my life, I thought of all I'd been through. My friends, high school, ROTC, College, my wife, kids, boot camp, my family in the army, and this battle…gone…all gone…

Note: If you liked this story, there will be a continuation for it. Check my page for more details.


End file.
